Kathy Deol said she remembers everything about the first home birth she witnessed.

It was April 16, 1996 in Fairfield. It was a snowy — yes, snowy — night.

“My first job was holding the flashlight,” she said, laughing.

Deol, from Fort Madison, said from that night on, she knew she wanted to be a midwife.

“It was like an epiphany,” she said.

Fast-forward 11 years. In December, Deol opened a new clinic in Iowa City with a chiropractor, Angela Ballew, of Davenport. The pair said they want the Women and Children’s Health Alternatives clinic, 505 E. Washington St., to be a place of refuge for women who want options when it comes to health care.

The clinic’s opening also represents a triumph for Deol, who faced charges last year of professional incompetency by the Iowa Board of Nursing, which said she was illegally practicing as a midwife in Iowa. Read more